Crumb is a baking cookbook from the young and talented Ruby Tandoh, with a focus on charming, flavorful, and practical dishes that celebrate the pleasure of casual baking. Continue reading

Crumb is a baking cookbook from the young and talented Ruby Tandoh, with a focus on charming, flavorful, and practical dishes that celebrate the pleasure of casual baking. Continue reading
by Dianne Boate
I have always had Russian neighbors in this San Francisco Richmond District apartment building. Many comings and goings of very interesting people, like the White Russian couple, both born in China, reuniting and marrying in San Francisco. Continue reading
Legendary baker Rose Levy Beranbaum is back with The Baking Bible , her most extensive “bible” yet. With all-new recipes for the best cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, candies, pastries, breads, and more, this magnum opus draws from Rose’s passion and expertise in every category of baking. Continue reading
by Dianne Boate
There was a terrible sound from the kitchen, an ominous chorus. I took another sip of champagne, closed my eyes, and waited for the four folks in the kitchen to report their mischief. These well-meaning individuals had decided to cook up a spaghetti / meat sauce dinner-–(“You won’t have to do a thing, Dianne.”) Dianne wasn’t about to do anything, having cooked and baked her heart out for 12 people at a Stern Grove Concert Consular Corps Table picnic that day.
by Terrell Williams
What’s orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.
This staple of American kitchens seems to have sunk into a rut in recent decades. There’s stew with carrots, where vital nutrients are often reduced to orange mush. There’s the carrot-raisin-mayo mix that still shows up at potlucks and salad bars. Fortunately, molded lime gelatin with shredded carrots went away with the 1960’s. Carrot and celery sticks, ho-hum nutrition, are put out with dips at most football parties. And carrot cake with pineapple, while not bad, also is a passé standard. Continue reading
by Dianne Boate
These days food flavors are being borrowed from every recipe known to man to create new sensations both in the mouth and for the pocketbook. Some are simply old ideas brought to life again with new twists and turns, while others have been lurking in food files to be rediscovered and savored. It happened to me recently while poking about in my “New Cookies to Make” file. It was a newspaper clipping yellowed with age. On the day I found it, I quickly realized I had all of the ingredients, so I sprang out of the chair and turned on the oven and went to work.